The Natick Housing Authority has started to turn around one of its major problems: reducing vacancies by 40 percent since their peak last summer.

Acting executive director Eileen Merritt told the authority’s board at its meeting last night the housing authority had 36 vacancies as of Feb. 1. In July, the Daily News reported the authority had 61 vacancies.

The authority oversees 390 apartments, for seniors, the disabled and families.

The authority actually had a slight increase in vacant units in January — two — due to a few deaths and a slowdown in rehabbing the apartments. Merritt said the units that are left to fix up are in “horrible” condition, and the staff is working hard to turn things over.

“There are so many variables that affect it,” Merritt said. “They didn’t get done as quickly as they thought they would, with our guys going in to finish them off.”

One unit was completed in January, she said, but eight units were completed in December, the most since a renewed focus on repairing empty apartments began last summer.

In August, it was revealed that the housing authority was $428,298 in debt and had been spending money it didn’t have for four years. The executive director at that time, Ed Santos, said he had known about the shortage for at least a year, but hadn’t asked any questions as to why the authority couldn’t pay bills. Santos went out sick on Sept. 9, and did not return to work. He retired Nov. 30.

The state Department of Housing and Community Development has tasked the housing authority with getting its percentage of vacant properties below 5 percent. It currently stands at 10 percent, Merritt said.

January marked the first time the number of vacant units dipped below 40 in quite some time.

“When I saw that, I was so pleased to see it in print,” Merritt said earlier yesterday. “You keep plugging along and plugging along, but you look up and see something like that and it feels good.”

When board members asked Merritt if the state’s 5 percent goal was unrealistic, she said: “Is it unrealistic? No, once we get the bulk of them done. But we have to just get past this next bunch of them.”

Board member Jeanne Williamson Ostroff noted the authority was still working short one maintenance person, and wondered if adding one part-time maintenance person would help the cause.

“With things falling apart, it’s really difficult to turn these things over and to fix things that are broken elsewhere,” she said.

Due to serious state-imposed budget restrictions, the board decided to take a wait-and-see approach on hiring any more staff.